10/28/2010

Old Group Photos and a Mystery

I posted this photo on Tuesday:

In the same collection is this picture:

The second picture is the mystery. Clearly two of the people are the same. They are my great-great-aunt Kristina with her husband Andrew Barbieri. But who are the others? Notice first that the picture of the child on the wall is the same. However, the walls are different, so the rooms or houses are different. The curtains are the same too. So, is the second photo a later photo? I can't be sure but the woman standing in the center in the first photo, whom I know to be my great-great-grandmother seems to be the same woman seated in the center of the second photograph. She's older (by say ten years). If that is so, then the man seated next to her must be her husband, and therefore I have a photo of my great-great-grandfather. But this photo is not labelled. And all the people who could corroborate it are now dead. The irony is that their deaths brought the photo into my possession in the first place. My fear is that the older couple is Andrew Barbieri's parents. Is there a resemblance between the two men in the second photo?

My great-aunt Bette at my grandmother's funeral at which I sang, told me that my great-great-grandfather, whom she knew had the same type of voice, a big one that could fill a room easily. He had thick hair and a mustache according to her description. Is that this man?

4 Comments

Hi Martin,
There is a different dog in both photos. If you look closely you'll notice the frames on the two pictures are both oval, but they are different. Also one photo has been cracked. The curtains are both lace, but in the second photo they are much more intricately patterned. One room is carpeted and the other is bare floor. So if it is the same home, it appears to be "upgraded" with carpet, wallpaper and fancier curtains. But, how to explain the photograph in better condition than in the earlier photo.
I'd say they are different houses.
I can see a resemblance between the two gentlemen in the second photo, ears protruding, face shape, nose.
Is the woman sitting on the right in the top picture possibly an older sister, or aunt of the woman holding the child in the lower picture, at first I thought they were the same person.
Good luck figuring it out!
palib descendant of Caroline Cleveland Irving

I think the second photo is later. The younger man with the mustache is slightly older than in the first image. They are a curious pair of photos. Do you know where the couple lived? So why would two different houses have the same photo of the little girl? Could they be taken with different sets of grandparents. More questions than answers but I agree with the above observations.